The Christmas Present
by glockcourage
Summary: Summary: The measure of our love is the sacrifice we are willing to make.


Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: For Twi-Smile, for laughing at my twisted jokes.

—o0o

**The Christmas Present**

Once there was a father who lost his wife to childbirth during Christmas time.

As he looked on the tiny face of his offspring, he murmured a wish that he wouldn't lose her too.

His daughter clung to him in her first year, her dependence a balm to his bereaved soul.

In her second year, the curiosity she held in her tiny body was given a voice. She started to ask what was beyond there.

Shikamaru was at a lost how best to answer her. What was beyond the safety of their home, was the whole world in its beautiful but dangerous glory.

His intelligence dictated that one doesn't answer such an inquiry with words but with sight.

So, never once letting go of her hand, Shikamaru allowed her daughter to explore her surroundings.

The beautiful meadows were scrutinized by little eyes. Tiny flowers were picked and brandished beneath her father's nose. While thorny flowers were left alone under the deceptively lazy but watchful eyes of her father.

The tot was also taken to the thriving town. A place where people met and trade. A place where colorful and useful things were sold and bought. A place of entertainment and nourishment.

Always, Shikari was carried across her father's shoulders, higher than the other town goer's head, a position that she enjoyed without getting under anyone's feet.

It was in one of their numerous strolls around, that she saw something from a bazaar display window. For the first time, it made her struggle, willfully shaking off her father's hold before pointing at a beautiful doll regally exhibited in the center of the showcase.

Fanciful thinking led Shikamaru to believe that the appeal of the doll to his daughter was that it was easy to imagine that it was fashioned after her mother. The doll shared the same short blonde hair and the same sharp blue-green eyes with the picture of the woman sitting on the table beside Shikari's bed.

Shikamaru could only give in to his daughter. Despite her struggle, he still bought the doll for Shikari.

In her third year, Shikari's most treasured possession was her doll she hugged every night.

Shikamaru noticed.

He also noticed that in her third year, Shikari struggled more against the hand holding her own, wanting more independence for herself.

She wanted to go there and everywhere without her father always offering her the shadow of safety.

She wanted to go places—_running _and if she scrapped her knees, so be it. She would discover how much it would hurt from the experience and learn from it.

But she also wanted to not displease her overly protective father.

So one lazy afternoon, with planned secrecy, Shikari left the house timing it while her father was napping.

She wanted to do something she was never allowed to do. She wanted to dip her toes to check how cold the water in the pond by the meadows was.

She already knew it was icy cold but she wanted to find out what was icy cold.

By the pond, she removed her shoe and sock balanced on one little foot but before she could finish the job she slipped from the grassy banks into the cold deep water, discovering what icy felt like among other things.

Shrieking for help, flailing her small arms to stay afloat, she wondered if her father could hear her for their home was quite a distance from the pond after all.

By some miracle, as if magic, Shikamaru did hear and he came just in the nick of time and had his wish of years ago granted.

Shikari wasn't lost to him. But that afternoon, he lost his temper for the first time.

Anger marked the day and more days later.

Shikari clutched her doll more willingly than she clutched her father's distant hand.

One night in the eve of her fourth year, in her little voice she prayed, "_All I want_ for Christmas is my mommy."

Just behind the bedroom door, Shikamaru heard his daughter. Without letting her know of his presence, without entering, he left her room.

In his own bedroom, the room he once shared with his wife, he murmured another prayer, another wish, "Give my daughter back her mother. Let Temari be the one to stay by her side to nurture her."

Then before he fell asleep, he glanced at the clock. Twelve midnight. It's Christmas. A time of magic and wishes coming true.

One morning, the morning she turned four, Shikari woke up with her mother's kiss on her forehead and the doll usually clutched in her hand replaced by a stuffed deer.

While she pushed away her stuffed toy, in her little voice, she asked, "Where's daddy?"

Temari traced the little one's face, a face almost similar to her own. "Don't you like your father's gift?"

Shikari hugged her mother. "I wished for you so you could help him raise me. You are my gift to him."

"And I'm his gift to you, only he thought..." Temari took the stuffed deer from the bed and gave it to her daughter. "He'll always be here with us."

—o0o—

~12 19 13AF P 12 25 13~

A/N: Inspired by a synopsis of the story _The Gift of Magi_.

Have a blessed Christmas, everyone.


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